An Apology and Some Teasers
by The Master Insaniac
Summary: Exactly what it says on the tin. I apologize and offer some teasers to tide you all over for a little bit.
1. Apology

**A/N: Okay, as many of you may or may not have noticed, Legend of the Dark Knight Guardian has just recently gone down. I'm going to say this right out of the gate: NEITHER I NOR FF ITSELF HAD ANYTHING TO DO WITH IT.**

**My not very little brother and I had a, uh, 'disagreement, as it were. This disagreement put such a bur up his ass that he used the password I gave him to post things to FF when I couldn't to delete my stories off of FF and then deleted all of my other stuff from the Word program on my computer. In short, I have to start back from square one. **

**I just felt that I should tell you all this, I didn't want you thinking that I'd deleted them without telling you. Trust me, if a story is going down, I'll do my best to let you know beforehand. I'm also telling you not to worry. I'm going to try to get my stories back up, the only things is that they may be slightly different from their predecessors, or they might be vastly different, I don't know. **

**Next item: The new stuff will be a little while coming. I've come to realize that the overall quality of my writing is better when I write it on paper, and **_**then**_** type it, as opposed to just typing. As a matter of fact, this post came into existence in just such a way. **

**Now, I know what you're thinking, "Oh this is just an apology post, he's not giving us anything good." Well fear not! I **_**am**_** going to leave you with something. As a matter of fact, I'm going to leave you with FOUR somethings. Starting next chapter, this will become a story of teasers for new things to come. I won't tell you anything about that but this, there **_**will**_** be a teaser for the Dark Knight Guardian's replacement. **

**So, if things went right, this entire thing is available on FF in full, so mosey your way through the next four chapters and tell me what you think. **

**As always, Reviews, Comments, Suggestions and Constructive Criticism is both appreciated and taken into consideration. So, as you read, and you feel like something is wrong, or you feel like you want make suggestions to add to the creative process of my stuff, drop me a line via review, and I WILL get back to you and discuss your ideas, concerns, or just thank you for the input. **

**And also as always, any flames will be sent back in time to fuel a bonfire for me to burn copies of all the Twilight Saga books. **


	2. Sereitei Evangelion

**SEIREITEI EVANGELION**

He breathed deeply as the massive metal construct around him moved. If anyone asked, he wouldn't have been afraid to admit that he was nervous. How could he not be? What he was about to face had wiped out tank battalions and entire VTOL squadrons AND, on top of that, had taken an N2 mine _to the_ _face_ and still walked.

The only thing he had to reassure him were the words of his until now estranged father.

"_Look, Ichigo, I know I haven't been there for you for a good portion of your life, but I've been watching. I've seen you grow into a man to be admired, set an example that is to be followed, and gain skills to protect that any who pisses you off should fear. That's why I called you here. There is no doubt in my mind that you can do this. You can, you _will_ win, and when the battle's over and your safe, we'll have a talk, a _real_ talk, father to son. I promise."_

Father. Ichigo really didn't know how to feel about the man. On the one hand, he'd been absent from his life since he was very young and only reached out to him now because he needed something done. But on the other hand, he seemed genuinely guilty about that fact and, to hear him talk, had at least kept an eye on him.

He cleared his mind of everything at that moment. He could think about his feelings regarding his dad later. Right now, he had to focus.

"Are you sure you're ready for this, Ichigo?" A little image box appeared in the corner of his eye as the speaker asked the question. The speaker was a dark skinned woman with purple hair in a pony tail and golden eyes. Ichigo snorted.

"You ask me that _after_ I'm already in the giant robot? A little late, don't you think?" He quipped. The woman, Major Yoruichi Shihoin, smiled.

"Just making sure." Her smile became less humorous and took on a warmer look. "Be careful out there, huh? I'm planning on throwing a party after this, and I want to be able to say it was because you epically kicked angel ass, not because you put up a good fight, but still died." She told him. The teen had to smile at that.

"Don't you worry. You'll get your party, on one condition." Said Ichigo.

"What's that?" Asked Yoruichi.

"I like chocolate cake, so there'd better be plenty of it at that party you're planning." The orange haired youth demanded. The purple haired woman's smile widened.

"Come back alive, and we'll talk." She bargained. "Oh, quick question: do you like roller coasters?" Ichigo cocked a brow at the odd question.

"Never been on one. Why?" he queried. Yoruichi didn't answer, opting to turn away from the view screen and bark an order to the bridge crew.

"Launch the EVA!"

"Wait, wha-" He was cut off by his giant metal container shooting up like a bullet. Ah. So that's what she meant. Screaming all the way, he rocketed upward to face a creature that could very well end all of humanity.


	3. Assassin's Creed: Flame

**Assassin's Creed: Flame**

The assassin and the templar faced each other tensely. Until now, they hadn't faced one another. The templar had hidden behind dozens of, to him, disposable men, and the assassin had been more than happy to carve his way through most of them.

But destiny had brought them to this moment.

The assassin was garbed in clothing that wouldn't have been out of place on a ninja, if not for the beaked hood and bright red lining on the otherwise all black clothes. His name was Ichigo Kurosaki, and this confrontation had been a long time coming, in his opinion.

The templar wore a simple business suit, on account of the fact that the templars had no set uniform. His name was Sosuke Aizen, and he didn't really care much for the trained killer in front of him.

"I figured you'd eventually make it this far, Ichigo." Aizen admitted. Under his hood, Ichigo raised a brow in question.

"Really?" Aizen nodded. "You knew I'd cut my way through your underlings, ruin your operations, and then personally come to _kill_ _you_, and you still let me live that day?" He asked. The chocolate haired templar chuckled.

"Yes." Said Aizen. "I knew that there was a very real chance that the death of your family would ignite a fire in your soul, set you on the path to becoming an assassin, eventually see you _become_ an assassin, make you cut a bloody swathe through my underlings, and then set you at my throat. Even so, I let you live. I did so because, ultimately, nothing you do here will make any difference." He told the teen.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Asked Ichigo. "You die, there's no one to run things. I made sure of that. And even _if_, by some minute chance, I left someone alive who could plausibly take over for you, it won't be long before I just kill them too." The young man pointed out. Much to his ire, Aizen chuckled once more.

"It seems, my boy, that you labor under the delusion that _I_ run this organization."

Ichigo's eyes widened at the implication of that statement. Aizen wasn't the leader?! That wasn't possible! The assassin's had checked! They'd made _absolutely sure_!

Despite the frenzied nature of his thoughts, the teen didn't let his expression shift one centimeter.

"And _you_ seem to labor under the delusion that it matters. If you're the leader, then I kill you and the whole thing comes crumbling down. If you're not, then I've just thrown another monkey wrench into your great leader's plans." The teen made it seem so simple, but in reality, it was anything but. It had taken the Assassin Order quite a while to even discern who Aizen was, and even longer to puzzle out his position in the Templar Order.

"Well then, kill me, by all means." Aizen sounded so calm in the face of his impending demise that it was creepy.

Ichigo flicked his wrists, triggering mechanisms within the bracers that he hid under his sleeves and causing his hidden blades to spring out. He then ran up to the still casually smiling templar, blades poised to slash his throat and end his existence, but stopped. Aizen hadn't even twitch.

The teen didn't know why he was hesitating. The only _good_ templar was a _dead_ templar, in his opinion, with _very_ few exceptions. But if what Aizen had said was true, killing him now would be arbitrary. He could go for the big fish now and return for the small-fry at a later date. With that in mind, he retracted his hidden blades, though he kept alert, ready to unsheathe them again if the chocolate haired templar made one wrong move.

"You've been granted a stay of execution, Aizen." The man's expression didn't change.

"Have I? Well, I shall have to cherish the extra time that I've been given." He said.

"See that you do." Said Ichigo. "Because it's not much." So saying, he turned and started walking toward the window. Then the previously threatened templar started talking again.

"You know, Ichigo, you're a much better man than I." Aizen said casually. Ichigo stopped moving.

"I already knew that, so why do you feel the need to point it out?" He asked. It wasn't often that a templar complimented an assassin who wasn't about to die.

"I don't know. I'm just struck by the fact that you, who have every reason to hate me, my order, and everything associated with it, is letting me live. Me, who basically killed your mother," Ichigo clenched his fists. He knew what Aizen was doing, but he wouldn't take the bait. "Your father," His fists clenched harder. "And very nearly, your sisters. And who also told my men that they could do whatever they pleased with the women." At that point, years of ingrained assassin training to keep an iron grip on his composure flew out the window.

Before the brown haired templar could even blink, the assassin turned around and charged toward him. Once he was at the appropriate distance, He round house kicked Aizen in the head.

On its own, a round house kick can be quite devastating, given enough force. In Ichigo's case, it was lethal. In the toe of his boot, there was a trigger mechanism for a hidden gun, and when he kicked Aizen in the head, it activated. The mechanism activated, the gun fired, Aizen's head gained a new orifice, and his floor along with some of his wall received a nice new coating of blood. As the templar fell to the floor, dying, he stared at the assassin disbelievingly.

"Y-you said you wouldn't k-kill me." He gasped out.

"I lied." Said Ichigo simply.

"I thought…assassins…Japan…honor…" It was clear that Aizen was very short for the world.

"an honorless death for an honorless bastard." Ichigo said. He then tapped the boot opposite the one that held the hidden gun to the ground, causing the foot mounted hidden blade to spring out. Then he kicked Aizen in the head, driving the blade directly into Aizen's brain.

His bloody work complete, the young assassin turned away from the fresh corpse and walked toward the window. He sighed. At the very least, that was one target down. The down side? There might be one left. Byakuya wouldn't be happy.

On the sill of the window, he surveyed the area, all of it lit by street lights, for a place to land. To his relief, he found a suitable place directly below, ten stories down.

As he always did before doing what he was about to, he took a deep breath. He then calculated how far he'd have to jump off of the sill and, those calculations in mind, jumped off of the sill and into the open air.


	4. Weeping Devil

Weeping Devil: Legend of the Dark Guardian

A woman stood on the side walk, observing the bar directly across the street from her. On account of the fact that it was the dead of night, she didn't draw much attention, but if there had been, it would have been quite the opposite.

For one thing, she had golden blond hair that was unruly for the most part, but some of it was in three long tails. For another thing, she had dark skin. Not the fake sort that delinquent girls got through ganguro, but natural and beautiful. Thirdly, she wore an odd white and black uniform that was completely different from any mainstream style that covered the bottom part of her face, but left her stomach bare.

The most obvious thing about her, though, would have to have been her, uh, assets. You, know, her double whammies. Her huge tracts of land. In short, her breasts, which were **massive.**

Tia Harribel narrowed ice blue eyes as she continued looking at the bar, "The Weeping Devil". _"Why has Lord Aizen sent me here?"_ She asked herself. If the being inside, whom she'd been sent to collect, had been of any consequence, she reckoned that she would at least be able to sense him as something more than a tiny presence within the perception of her pesquisa. But she couldn't. As far as she could tell, there was nothing more than a normal human inside.

Sighing, the buxom blond began advancing toward the bar. She couldn't fathom the purpose of this, but Lord Aizen had given her her orders.

Inside the Weeping Devil, a white haired young man in blue jeans, a blue shirt with a black trench coat over it, and leather boots leaned back in a wooden chair, unaware of the potential danger lurking right outside his door.

He was reading a book of Shakespeare sonnets to pass the time until he felt like sleeping. He was thoroughly immersed, until the old rotary phone on his desk started ringing annoyingly.

"Weeping Devil." The proprietor of the Weeping Devil, Ichigo Kurosaki, answered. The person on the other end of the line started inquiring about the bar's opening, and then about some of the…services that he offered besides running the bar. "Sorry, we're not open yet." He said, hanging up abruptly. People who called this late at night irritated him. There was a sign outside the bar that clearly said when the bar would open for business, and it had been there long enough that everyone should know that no, he _wasn't_ open yet.

"Ichigo Kurosaki." A husky voice said from the door. The teen looked up and his eyes widened. Standing in his threshold was probably the bustiest, blondest woman he'd ever seen. Probably, because he knew quite a few women with chests that were, uh, not inconsiderable. Shaking his head to clear away any naughty thought he may have had concerning the woman's massive mammaries, Ichigo resppnded,

"What can I do for you, Miss?" He set all four of his chairs legs on the floor. "We're not open for business yet, but if you need to use the bathroom, it's in the back." He informed, pointing his thumb vaguely behind him.

"Oh, who's to say that I didn't just drop in to see you?" She said, leaning over and inadvertently, or advertently, it was hard to tell, pushed pressed her generous bust against his wood table. "You're pretty easy on the eyes, you know." She said, leaning in real close. Ichigo simply chuckled.

"Why, thank you. But, come on, why're you really here?" He queried. Though he couldn't see the lower half of her face, her eyebrows shifted into a position indicative of a pout.

"Aw, you don't believe me?" she asked, rising from the table and walking slowly, sexily, behind him. "Why can't a girl drop in to talk to such a strapping young man as yourself?" she asked, teasingly running her finger across his shoulders. The snow haired youth shuddered in minor pleasure. His coat muted most of the sensation, but damn if what he _did_ feel didn't feel good.

"Meh, I'm not that lucky." He said lightly, but cynically.

"Well," The woman said leaning into his back, pressing her breasts against it, and putting her hands over his shoulders and on to his stomach, which, she was minorly pleased to note, held firm under her touch. " if you come with me, you might just _get_ that lucky." She purred into Ichigo's ear. Her host shuddered once more, before leaning back into her embrace.

"Do you promise to treat me nicely?" He asked idly, letting his eyes drift closed. Harribel grinned under her high collar and tightened her hold somewhat.

"Oh, I'll treat you so nicely that you'll never want to leave." She said breathily into his ear. Faster than any human, she then moved one hand, summoned her sword, Tiburon, and then stabbed it through the ivory haired teen's chest. "Ever." She finished. Pulling her sword from her now dead target and flicking the blood off of it, she walked back around the table and began heading for the door.

It surprised her how easy that had been. Lord Aizen had sent her, the third most powerful in his army, to take care of _this_? It defied all logic. If he could be dispensed as easily as having a sword driven though him, he might as well have sent Ulqiorra, or even that bastard Nnoitra. There was no need to waist her time on something so, so, _frivolous._

The sound of a human gun cocking was the only thing she heard before her shoulder exploded in pain. The sheer forward force of whatever had hit her sent her tumbling to the floor as she clutched her now liberally bleeding shoulder. She turned her head in shock and found that the young man she'd just killed was holding an oversized black pistol in his hand.

"You know, that was a pretty mean trick you played on me, Blondy." The teen said, head still leaned back. He then proceeded to lean forward to look at her with a look that was both annoyed and amused all at once. "I actually thought I had a shot." Said the now revived Weeping Devil proprietor faux mournfully.

"How did you survive?!" Harribel bit out, the pain of her injured shoulder putting her in something of a snit. "No human should be able to live after being run completely run through!" She pointed out heatedly.

"You're right. No _human_ should." Said Ichigo.

"What are you trying to say? That you're not…" She began, only for the teen to cut her off.

"Suffice it to say that I'm complicated." He said vaguely. He then looked down to the puncture wound in his chest, which now had a rapidly growing dark stain growing on the front of it. "Damn it woman, this was my favorite shirt, and my favorite coat for that matter." He said. He then sighed and began removing his shirt and coat. "Might as well make sure that I don't get _too_ much blood on them."

Harribel didn't respond for a moment after he'd completely removed the bloody clothes. One reason was that her target was quite noticeably muscled. Not bulky by any stretch of the imagination, but she had the feeling that she could put water on his abs and use them like a washing board. At that, she had to banish any images of a wet, soapy Ichigo from her mind. The second reason was because his entire abdominal area, which should have sported a stab wound, was unblemished and no longer bleeding.

"Look, lady," Said Ichigo as he idly jerked his head to the side, popping his neck. "I'm gonna bet that you're not from around here, so I'll make you a deal: If you get the hell outta my place _right now_ and never come back, your life will last longer than the next ten seconds." He bargained threateningly.

Harribel said nothing. Who did this human think he was? She was Tia Harribel, the Tercera Espada of Lord Aizen's army! What right did this _child_ have to order her around?!

It occurred to her then that the ivory haired youth probably didn't know that. Oh well, that was no matter. She'd just have to put him in his proper place. So thinking, she stood and relaxed a portion of the iron control she'd been using to keep her spirit energy obfuscated in the world of the living, healing her shoulder instantaneously.

Ichigo acknowledged that the force of gravity seemed to be growing more and more intense around him. He acknowledged it like a normal person acknowledged that there was a fly buzzing around annoyingly. If he were to be completely honest, he'd have admitted to being amused by the whole situation. The blonde woman clearly thought that he was powerless, and so could be intimidated by this show of raw strength. Well, he'd just have to show her how wrong she was, wouldn't he?

"That's a pretty neat trick you got there, miss." He said. He then separated his soul from his body. His soul's physical form was clad in a sleeveless version of the standard soul reaper uniform that had a gun belt around its waist and a sword on its hip. "But you know what? I can do it to." He said, unleashing his own power and letting it rage around him like a hurricane.

Harribel couldn't believe this turn of events. The human hadn't been human at all! He was a soul reaper! To top that, he was powerful, almost frighteningly so. She hadn't let loose all the way herself, but she could tell that her opponent hadn't either, yet he was matching her current output exactly. The frightening thing was that she was currently putting off power comparable to that of a strong lieutenant class soul reaper, and Kurosaki didn't even look like he was straining to match her. That could only mean that he had more to spare. Wanting to test this, she unleashed even more of her power.

Ichigo raised a brow as the blond woman upped her power even more. She'd been somewhere around lieutenant level, but then she'd let loose a little more, and she now equaled a medium strength soul reaper captain. Meh, it wasn't a problem. He'd just have to relax his restraint a little more.

Harribel's eyes narrowed as Ichigo's power level rose to rival hers once more. How powerful was he? At this point, the only ones who should have been able to match her should have been the captains of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads! Underneath the sheer shock of the fact that there was a non-espada who could rival her in _any_ respect, there was a sliver of fascination. She wondered, if she were to unleash her full power, would the ivory haired soul reaper rise to that challenge as well?

Ichigo's eyes widened as the blond woman's power level rose once more. Holy Fuck! How powerful was this chick?! As her power level continued to rise, her energy became visible. It manifested itself as a yellow aura that flared all round her as if someone had set her ablaze.

He was torn as to what course of action to take next. On the one hand, if he released all of his limiters, he could match her, maybe even outdo her, but who knew what would happen to his bar if he did that? His own spirit energy had a history of causing wide-spread collateral damage when he unleashed it all. But on the other hand, if he didn't match her and she attacked, there was a very good chance that she could actually kill him. He could heal like a bastard, but there was only so much that he could take.

But on top of everything, on top of the possibility of death or destruction of his place, there was the woman herself. She stared at him with twin pools of ice, almost like she was silently challenging him. Was that it? Had she increased her power this much just to see if he could match her? Was this some kind of test? If it was, Ichigo mused, then he had one hell of a tester, and it was probably the only test he'd actually enjoy in his entire life. Grinning an eager grin, he channeled spirit energy to his arm, causing a massive array of arcane symbols that covered his entire arm from his wrist to his elbow to appear.

Harribel quirked a brow in interest. What was Kurosaki doing? Those tattoos on his arm, they were unlike anything she'd ever seen before. Her intrigue only increased when the ivory haired young man unsheathed the blade from his side. It was a katana with no guard and a black blade. The unusual thing about it, besides it's ebony blade, was that it faintly glowed blue.

"What is that?" The blond asked curiously. Ichigo actually grinned at her question.

"This? This is my sword: the Zangetsu." He told her.

"'Slaying Moon'?" Harribel queried. "Isn't that kind of presumptuous?"

"Not at all. Zangetsu is probably the most practical zanpakuto there is. He's a melee type, so his power lies in cutting things. Originally, he wasn't as small as he is now, but I learned to compress my spirit energy so he shrunk to a more practical size, while also gaining a shit-ton of density. Because of that, he's extremely hard to break and his cutting edge never dulls. He's sharper than all hell, too. I'm confident that if I ever came across the Spirit King in my line of work, he would be cut by this blade." Ichigo explained. Harribel hmmed in intrigue.

"That's quite the boast. Can you back it up, or are you just posturing to try and intimidate me?" She queried. The ivory haired youth actually laughed out loud at that.

"Lady, I'm pretty sure that if I tried to intimidate you, nothing I did would do a shit thing against you." He declared. "But I got off track. You see, Zangetsu serves two purposes. He's the zanpakuto I gained when I became a soul reaper, but he's also my personal devil arm, the key to my true powers." He told her.

"Your true power?" Harribel queried.

"Uh-huh. I'm pretty sure it was Aizen who sent you. Am I right?" He took her responding silence as confirmation. "Then I'm sure he told you all about the gentei reiin, the thing that soul reapers use to seal most of their powers in the Human World." She nodded. "Well, these tattoos on my arm are kind of like that, but different. The normal limiter symbol wasn't strong enough and disintegrated pretty much immediately after they applied it. So, one of the soul reaper captains, a relative of mine in fact, came up with the idea for this." Ichigo held up his arm. "The tattoos are the lock, and Zangetsu is the key."

"It seems to me that for something like that to be necessary, you'd have to be ungodly strong." Harribel mused aloud. The teen chuckled, causing her to cock a curious brow. "What's so funny?" She asked.

"It's nothing; your word choice is just coincidental as hell, that's all." Ichigo said, still chuckling.

"Oh? How is that?" Asked Harribel.

"Meh, you wouldn't understand." Ichigo said, waving a hand dismissively. "But anyway, I have to thank you, Miss…" he trailed off in a questioning fashion.

"Harribel. Tia Harribel." The blond replied simply.

"I have to thank you, Miss Harribel, for giving me an excuse." The teen told her.

"An excuse?" Harribel questioned.

"Yes, an excuse. To cut loose and let all my power out. Normally, I'd catch ten different kinds of hell for using all of my power in the Human World, but I'm pretty sure I can justify it by saying that I was facing you." He said. "It wouldn't even be a lie."

"You're…welcome?" The blond espada didn't really know how to respond to that.

"As a token of my appreciation, I'm going to show you the full extent of the power that I have right now." He said before vanishing. He then reappeared in front of Harribel, put a hand on her head, and vanished again, her in tow.

When they both reappeared, the first thing that the blond nbotcied was that there was no solid ground beneath her feet. She looked down, and her eyes widened at the sheer _height_ of where she currently was. Below the two of them, the lights of Karakura town all bled together to form one big patch of light.

"Where are we?" She queried, looking back up at the teen.

"We are currently…" He said, putting a hand to his chin in thought. "a mile above Karakura town." He said.

"Why so high?" Harribel asked curiously.

"Well, my energy's kind of finicky. It's fine for anyone who's a spiritual being in the first place, but for anything else, in large doses it's, well, suffice to say it ain't pretty." He explained. "It won't affect you a lick, and we're high enough in the air that it shouldn't do anything to any of the hapless humans below, so I feel comfortable doing this." He suddenly raised his left arm and gripped it with his right hand. "Stage One: Stare Into the Night, Zangetsu!" He yelled.

Twin pools of blue widened as the tattoos on the teens arm glowed before disappearing. They widened even further as the now bare human arm transformed into something distinctly…_in_human. In the most basic sense, it was humanoid: four fingers and a thumb. That, however, was where the similarities ended. For one thing, from the back of the hand to a spike that jutted out from the elbow, it was covered in some kind of organic looking red armor. For another thing, there were several veins running through the arm that, along with the now clawed hands and whatever else wasn't covered by the armor, glowed blue like Zangetsu's blade. A blond brow was cocked in fascination as the teen then switched said sword over to his left hand.

"Stage Two: Gentei Kaijo!"

Harribel had to shield her eyes at the explosion of raw energy that issued forth from the young soul reaper after his latest proclamation. It was a blast at first, then it began swirling around and about like a massive hurricane. It was only her own considerable power that allowed her to stay in place in the spiritual storm instead of being tossed about like a rag-doll.

Suddenly, the storm stopped raging uncontrollably, and started swirling around like a tornado. It flattened into a massive disk of rotating energy, and slowly began shrinking. It seemed to grow smaller with each revolution of its circular shape, until finally the entire storm had faded from existence, leaving only the young soul reaper, who now had a blue aura of his own surrounding him like some sort of shroud. Behind him, a blue tinted specter at least twice his size with two bull like horns on its head loomed. The teen looked up at her with eyes that glowed red.

"This is my true power." Ichigo told the blond with a voice that consisted of a higher pitched version of his actual voice along with the normal version. "The Devil Trigger. What do you think?"

If Harribel were to be quite honest, she would have said that she didn't know what to think. She could feel that the soul reaper was now her equal. Such would not be the case if she were to call Tiburon back to her and release her sealed powers, but no, that wasn't a tactic to be used at this point.

"I think that you're quite powerful, Ichigo Kurosaki. More powerful than I would have imagined." Said Harribel cooly before turning away from the teen. "My orders were to kill you or, failing that, get a feel for how powerful you really were. As it seems that I won't be able to kill you at the moment, I'll settle for returning to Lord Aizen with my findings." She stated. Ichigo merely shrugged before powering down and resealing both his sword and his powers.

"Go ahead, tell him." He commanded calmly. "By the time it'll even be an issue, I'll be even stronger, so your little report will be next to useless." He boasted.

"I hope you do become stronger, Kurosaki." Harribel declared. "When you get to my level, there are very few beings that can provide an actual challenge. If you get stronger, as you say you will, you'll give me a good fight before I kill you, for real this time." She told him. A Long black tear appeared in thin and spread to become a pitch black portal I front of the blond. She began to walk into it, but the calling of her would be opponent stopped her.

"Hey! All you espada have numbers, right? The stronger, the smaller the number?" Ichigo asked.

"Yes, what of it?" Queried the dark skinned espada.

"Can I at least of the rank of my future killer?" The teen asked sarcastically. Harribel decided that she didn't like his tone, and so resolved to remove the confident smile that was most likely adorning his features.

"I am the tercera, number three." She told him. She then turned toward him to see the gob-smacked expression on his face. Grinning under her collar, Harribel walked into the black portal, leaving herself alone in the void between Hueco Mundo and the World of the Living. Oh yes, she would see Ichigo Kurosaki again. Of _that_, she was certain. She was also certain that when they _did_ meet again…

The battle would shake the very heavens.


	5. Darkness in the Storm

The Darkness in the Storm

He was going to die in this place, of that much he was sure. He didn't care. He was strangely at peace, actually. The only worry he had on his mind was what they would tell his family, if they were going to be told anything instead of just being left in the dark.

His family. He hadn't seen them in a while. It had been three years since his commander had snatched him up, put a gun in his hand, and made him fight in the Small Boy unit. His sister's, Karin and Yuzu, had had three birthdays without him. He wondered how they were holding up. The loss of their mother had nearly destroyed the entire family. What had happened after their big brother had gone missing? What had happened to his father after his eldest child had vanished, seemingly from the face of the earth?

These were good thoughts, he mused. Nice, normal ponderings to have while one was bleeding out on a battle field with a blade in his chest. Much better than the thoughts that would normally be racing around in the head of a kid who's mind had been warped by the cruel realities of war.

They'd killed people, the entire Small Boy unit. They'd killed countless enemies, each of the unit having at least five fatalities to their name. In that scenario, they'd all been faced with a choice: find a way to cope or eat their own guns. Some had taken the latter option, but most had taken the former.

Most of the Small Boys that had picked life over suicide had picked up some sort of bad habit. A good portion had taken to drinking right after a mission, letting the intoxication wash away memories of spilled blood. The only exceptions to that were the two who'd adopted completely opposing solutions, and yet still got along better than anyone else in the unit.

The first exception was Yasutora Sado, whom everyone had taken to simply calling 'The Tiger.' He kept himself from going crazy by rationalizing that by doing what he was doing, he was keeping a promise to his grandfather, a promise he'd made to use his strength-which wasn't anything to sneeze at-to protect. In his mind, by fighting these battles and killing these men, he was protecting his homeland, and by extension anyone who lived in it.

He himself, the young man who was mostly called a demon by his enemies, but whose dog tags bore the name 'Ichigo Kurosaki' stamped into them, had taken a…shall we say, less healthy course. He didn't know why, be it due to some flaw in his brain chemistry, or just because he was a sick little bastard, but he_ loved_ all the killing. He relished all the bloodshed, and he got a _massive_ hard on when he was in the midst of battle and just hacking his enemies to bits with his machete without a care in the world. He knew that there was something wrong with that, that if he were to go up to any shrink and say that he enjoyed killing people, they'd throw him in the nut house without a second thought, but he didn't care. In his current environment, he had plenty of opportunities to slate his odd blood lust, so he could give a flying _fuck_ if it didn't quite qualify as what most people would call 'normal.'

Well, he used to have plenty of opportunities. He was dying now, and it was kind of hard to kill, well, _anything_ when you were in the midst of joining the ranks of the deceased yourself. Idly, he wondered if Yasutora, who Ichigo called Chad, because 'The Tiger' sounded corny, was okay. The entire unit had been caught in the ambush that had led to his current predicament, and he'd only really put odds on him and Chad surviving. Fuck all the rest of the guys, they were all either dead, or pussy ass enough to actually turn traitor. That was fine, if that was the case, that just meant he'd get to kill them later, if he managed to live through all this. Despite the whole dying thing, a grin found its way across Ichigo's features at the prospect of more death by his hand.

"For fuck's sakes! Would you hurry up and die already?!" A voice that the homicidal boy wasn't familiar with called from his right. He turned his head and could do nothing but let his eyes widen at the sight that greeted him.

The man was _massive_, at least from where Ichigo was standing, laying, whatever. He wore a black kimono with a tattered, sleeveless, white haori over it. His hair was done in backward pointing spikes with bells at the tips, and he wore an eye-patch. At his hip, there was a sword wrapped in bandages.

In short, he looked like the last mother fucker that Ichigo needed to be dealing with at the moment.

"Could you say that again?" the boy asked sarcastically. "I couldn't hear you over the sound of me bleeding like a stuck pig." He snarked. It unnerved even the young sociopath when the man let out a grin that wouldn't look out of place on a shark.

"About to bite it big and you can still crack wise. I like that. But like I said earlier, hurry up and die already. I don't wanna have to wait any longer than I have to in order to fight you." The giant commanded impatiently.

"That's right! Kenny's been bored lately Soldier Berry and he needs someone fun to play with or he'll get really cranky!" A child's voice said from behind the behemoth of a man. A little head of short pink hair then popped up on the other side of the giant's shoulder, the face a little girl being framed by it. "So come on! Hurry up and die!"

"I'm so sorry that the machete jutting from sternum isn't doing me in fast enough for you." Ichigo ground out. He'd made the mistake of shifting his position while he was talking, causing his entire abdominal area to explode with pain. Needless to say, it was hard to snark when he was in agony.

"As you should be, Soldier Berry! Don't you know it's rude to keep people waiting?" The little girl asked, completely missing the venom in the boy's tone.

"Look, if you both want me dead so much, why don't you just kill me yourself? Not like it would take much." Ichigo pointed out.

"Oh, don't tempt me kid. It's against the rules to kill a human that hasn't attacked us first. I may want to fight you _really_ badly, but I don't need the old fart on my ass for not following regulations." Said the giant. Ichigo gave him a flat look, then slowly wrapped his fingers around the hand of the machete at his side. He lifted it with one hand and swung it feebly at the giant, the blow connecting with the lightest of taps.

"There, I attacked you. Now get it over with." Ichigo commanded.

"Works for me!" The giant roared, pulling his sword from its sheath and hefting it high with another sharky grin on his face. The grin then faded as the gargantuan man craned his head to the side. After a moment, the man frowned sheathed his sword with a disappointed sigh.

"Fuck. Well, kid, it looks like our fight's gonna have to wait a while after all." He said, sounding for all the world like a little boy who'd just been told that he couldn't go to the park. "So, anyway, I gotta go, but I think I'll take a little something to remember you by." The giant said before putting his hand around the dog tags around Ichigo's neck and yanking them free. "And you take this," he began, removing the bell from the middle spike of his hair and slipping it into Ichigo's free hand. "and remember the name: Kenpachi Zaraki!" The man exclaimed before turning to walk away.

"And Yachiru Kusajishi, too!" The little girl called from the giant, Kenpachi's, shoulder.

"I…will?" the boy said, not really knowing what else to say. What do you say when a guy takes your tags, gives you a bell in return, and tells you to remember his name? He blinked, both Kenpachi and Yachiru had vanished completely.

With the gargantuan guy no longer obstructing his line of sight, Ichigo could see a few figures in the distance that were steadily making their way to his position. Even better, they were wearing the Small Boy colors. Even _better_, though he wasn't one hundred percent positive due to the fact that his vision was now beginning to blur from blood loss, but he was pretty sure that the dark skinned guy leading them all was Chad. Good. Chad had survived. That meant that…he could…just drift…off…to…

Before the teen slipped completely into unconsciousness, one final though resounded through his mind. _**"**__and you remember the name: Kenpachi Zaraki!_

**A/N:** **So, how was it? Did you enjoy being tantalized? I hope so. **

**Now, before I retreat back into my secret cave of secret secrets, there're a few more things that I need to address. **

**These little blurbs of stories are kind of like teasers for movies, so some of these scenes may not actually make into the story they teased in their entirety. There may be elements of the teaser scenes, there may be the scenes themselves, I don't kknow, it all depends on what I feel like doing.**

**This chapter's teaser may not reveal what the story is actually about, but it was the only hint I could give you that wouldn't be glaringly obvious. **

**Updates will be slow coming. Like I said,** **hand writing, then typing, and add on beta-reading if I can find a good beta. Volunteers or recommendations on that front would be appreciated. **

**Just like last time, the continuation or death of a story depends on my readers. **

**Stories will be posted in pairs. What I mean is that I will post two first chapters of stories, then update them alternately. So, first chapter, first chapter, second chapter of first posted story, etc.**

**Finally, at the time of publishing, Darkness in the Storm has been written and is waiting for typing, and Weeping Devil is being written. **

**As always, thank you for reading, and review me with your thoughts, ideas, concerns or constructive criticisms. No flames though. Fire bad. **


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